Ryan Bradley Freeman Wins Winter Poker Open At Champions Club Texas

Ryan Bradley Freeman was the last player standing in the Winter Poker Open main event at Champions Club Texas in Houston, earning as the champion $181,000 to grow his career haul to $594,000.

This is a new top payday for Freeman, surpassing the $170,984 he earned for taking down the 2018 Card Player Poker Tour Choctaw main event for $192,242.

“Oh it feels great, I’m not gonna lie, it feels great! The structure was fantastic and it allowed me to pick the right spots … yeah it turned out great, especially when I also noticed quite a few players make some ICM mistakes when the ladders were really massive, so I was able to just hang around and wait for things to happen,” said Freeman to reporters after the victory.

The Texas native and Senior Project Manager in construction ended the interview by saying, “And yeah it also helps a lot that I sun-runned in a couple of big important pots. I’m gonna go grab a patty melt at Whataburger on the way home and then go to work tomorrow. Going to take the wife out for a fancy dinner and then invest the rest.”

This $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament drew 849 entries across five starting flights, resulting in a final prize pool of $1,120,680.

Day 2 saw the final 103 players return in the money with at least $2,210 in their pockets, and by the end of play just 14 players remained at the doorstep of the final day. Familiar faces that made a deep run en route to the final table included Andrew Tran (12th), Michael Bahls (13th), Ray Henson (14th), Lawrence Lazar (15th), Moe Tokko (17th), and Michael Borovetz (18th).

The final table started with Freeman second in chips, and Brant Jolly was the first to fall in ninth place. Freeman started his run to the title at the final table by taking out John Ross in eighth place, and after that Rakan Abusaleh was the next player to fall in seventh place. Joel Trevino was out next in sixth, and fifth place went to Trung Pham as Freeman continued to keep a low profile.

The battle for fourth place ended with Alejandro Jauregui taking his leave. Trevor Lewis was out next in third to set up a final match between Freeman and Dora Coyle. She held a better than 2:1 chip advantage when cards got into the air, and a seesaw battle ensued with Freeman catching up and then Coyle pulling away again.

Freeman battled back to take the upper hand before the last battle was dealt. The final hand saw Coyle bump the price of admission up to 1.2 million preflop, and Freeman called before the flop was dealt AJ4. Coyle made it 2.5 million after that, and Freeman check-called before the turn fell 3. Coyle moved all in for 14.75 million, and Freeman check-called to cover her. Coyle flipped over A8, and Freeman had her covered holding A10. The final card of the tournament was the 7, and Freeman won the pot and the tournament. Coyle was out in second place with a payday worth $161,000 thanks to her deep run in the tournament, and that put her career earnings above $300,000.

Main Event Final Table Results

Photo credit: Champions Club Texas / Rachel Kay Winter.

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